The blockbuster release of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxymay close out this year’s major comic book-based films, but the fall television season will see the premiere of several comic book adaptations. FOX will debut the Batman prequel series Gotham, the CW will bring back the hit show Arrowalong with its spinoff The Flash, and NBC will premiere its highly-anticipated Hellblazer adaptation, Constantine.

Meanwhile, on the film side of things, Pacific Rim director Guillermo del Toro has been developing a film – currently titled Dark Universe - that sort of resembles the New 52 series Justice League Dark. The comic book features John Constantine as a central character, who battles evil supernatural forces alongside a roster that includes Deadman, Shade, Madame Xanadu, Zatanna and others.

As WB and DC (finally) expand on their newly established cinematic universe with Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice in 2016, a big question was whether or not the movie universe would intersect with any of the DC-based TV shows. DC’s Geoff Johns recently answered that question in the negative.

Now, during a discussion with IGN(via CBM) about his upcoming Crimson Peak and Pacific Rim 2, Guillermo del Toro was asked where the Justice League Dark project stands. Del Toro confirmed that the movie in the scripting stage, with Warners and the director seeing “eye to eye” on the what the movie will be.

When asked about DC and WB’s intention to keep the universes separate – and the possibility of including the character The Spectre – del Toro had this to say:

“I would love to have The Spectre in it, because he’s one of the most..absolutely, beyond moral characters in this universe and he does crazy things…but, I’m happy with…they’re doing that with ‘Constantine.’ What I made clear to them is that the TV series will not affect the movie and they said that’s okay. They said you can have independence. Now, if we see the TV series and we can mesh with it or cast the same actor depending on where the movie is going, I would be happy to consider that.”

Del Toro listed a possible character roster, as well, which could include “Etrigan the Demon, Deadman, Swamp Thing, Zatanna, Constantine, The Floronic Man, and many, many others.”

Del Toro’s comments are not exactly a contradiction of Johns’ edict that the TV and movie universes will remain separate, but if del Toro can go on record as saying he’s open to the idea, will this change the perception of the other forthcoming DC-based television properties? Gotham and Constantine will air on FOX and NBC, but Arrow and The Flash live on The CW, which is partly owned by Warner Bros., so if any show would crossover with DC’s movie universe, it would presumably be one of those two.

Also, keeping the two media continuities “separate” doesn’t mean that the TV shows won’t exist somewhere within the movie universe. Still, could the TV version of John Constantine really appear in Justice League Dark? The JLD film would be an ideal project to expand on the mystical/supernatural aspects of the DC universe, which, if rumors prove true, could be introduced with Shazam in 2016.

Would a Justice League Dark movie work without John Constantine? Possibly, given the richness and (arguably) marquee-worthy nature of the other characters, such as Deadman, Etrigan and Swamp Thing. If WB and NBC could work out a deal, though, a crossover could result in a one-of-a-kind synergy and a unique species of fan goodwill. That is, assuming the show’s a success.

Dark Universe is currently in development. Constantinedebuts Friday, October 24, 2014 on NBC.

Sounds like a cool project. I haven’t read too many of those. I do remember Deadman from back in the day. I’ll be happy to watch it.

About the shared universes expanding across tv and movies, I think the logistics simply make it too hard to do for real. Even AoS only shares so little that it’s almost not shared anyways.

The problem (at least one of them) has got to be the timelines. Between each movie, you’ll be getting 20-40 hours of events on a running tv-show. They just can’t keep up in the movies.

And it’s really not that long ago that npbody expected any kind of sharedness, so it’s kinda funny to see how fast things switch around since it’s now kinda almost expected and some people get anywhere from disappointed to mad as hell about it.

If dc were to betray there realistic approach and put magic into there universe justice league dark seems like a better choice than shazam. While it may not be realistic It can believably fit the dark and gritty tone dc is starving for 10 times better than shazam could hope to do.

Plus if dc went all in with the magic and not have it be just “super duper science no human mind can ever understand” than they could make marvel look like a fool for relying on the super duper science excuse. It may never happen but it would crazy if it did.

This is amazing news, i recently started reading New 52 Justice league dark, wich is concurrent to New 52 Justice league, and its actualy a very good series.
Mikal Janin is a good artist.
And im currently reading the trinity war storyline, in wich they specialy cross over, and its amazing, constantine, and batman, superman, Wonder woman, deadman, Madame Xanadu,Zatanna, Shazam etc.
Naturaly this is amazing news for the Cinematic DC universe, if it comes into fruition, but Del Toro always has plans, and not always they happen in the end.
So its pretty hard to tell given Del toro record.
Regardless, this could be the DC “guardians of the galaxy” kinda thing, or the odd ball in the cinematic universe, with a Del Toro mark on it, but still with the serious, and gritty tone, wich is fantastic.
Hope it happens eventualy.

As much as I want this to happen…. I don’t think it will. Constantine is debuting on FRIDAYS. I don’t think a lot of people will watch it. It seems like NBC is dooming it before it starts. I think it got moved a few months ago. Del Toro’s trying but Warner Bros act like they don’t know what they’re doing.
They really do need to copy Marvel in one instance, make a freaking DC Studios. That would be huge and the payoff would make them billions. Hire Chris Terrio and Zack Synder as the main heads there and start making a universe. Batman V Superman WILL hit a billion just because of the title. I know it’d be hard work but come on, people.

guys – DC owns hellboy – so I think it is a no-brainer for him to be part of it…at least at some point … no reason this could not, if somewhat tangentially, be in the same DCCU…..and they already have decided to blow the doors off of magic w/ wonderwoman….her currently comics storyline is great, and is all magic and deities….

If this project is going to feature DC supernatural characters it has to include THE PHANTOM STRANGER. Also RAGMAN, BLUE DEVIL, SWAMP THING, RAVEN, THE DEMON, HELLBLAZER, and SANDMAN fall into the supernatural category.

I want JLD movie but i don’t want them to mix TV and Movie verse and i hope they won’t. Looking at Constantine trailer you could already see that it might be good enough for a TV series but its not high quality(like Breaking Bad for example) You can’t mix it. And after that few more troubles with respecting both verses. And what if there will be JL and JLD in the same project? You’ll have to go through hell to tie in everything.

Nice! So happy to hear this movie is moving forward. Del Torro is the perfect director for a Justice League Dark movie. It also doesn’t hurt that he’s been wanting to make this movie for some time now, good to hear WB is giving him his creative freedom.